10. Alessandro Troncon and Diego Dominguez

For a scrum half, he was a bull of a player, snapping and snarling behind that grizzled Italian forward pack.

Troncon kept the supply line flowing to his mate at No. 10 for nine years. Dominguez was a colossus of the European club game with a glittering career at Stade Francais.

In the blue of Italy, he was one of the stars responsible for catapulting the Azzurri into the Six Nations, and once there, he kicked the wining points that brought them their first, famous win over Scotland.

Two of Italy’s most famous rugby sons deserve their place on this list for their importance to a rugby nation they helped put on the big stage.

9. Agustin Pichot and Juan Martin Hernandez

Argentina took the 2007 World Cup by storm when they rampaged their way to the semi-finals.

Behind an uncompromising pack, Agustin Pichot was the terrier-like scrum half who probed, prodded and pushed his side forwards, while the man at No. 10 had magic in his boots.

Juan Martin Hernandez was in the form of his life in 2007. His running, passing and kicking were on another level.

Their partnership was forged at club level with Stade Francais, and their understanding inspired the Pumas to a third-place finish, with wonderful displays in particular against Ireland in the pool stage and France in the playoff for that third spot.

6. Justin Marshall and Andrew Mehrtens

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The one thing missing from the celebrated 9/10 partnership of Justin Marshall and Andrew Mehrtens was a World Cup win.

Marshall’s game was based on speed, sniping and a razor-sharp pass. The measured Mehrtens was a wonderful kicker, both at goal and from hand, and he had the poise and intuition to put the dazzling array of runners around him into spaces where they could best display their wares.

Ask Jonah Lomu, Jeff Wilson, Tana Umaga and Co. if they’d have been half the attacking unit without the fluid axis of Mehrtens and Marshall pulling the strings.

Their answer will be no, no and no again.

Together they helped return Canterbury to the top of the domestic scene in New Zealand and between them amassed 151 caps for the All Blacks.

2. Gareth Edwards and Phil Bennett

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If you know only the tiniest piece of rugby history, there is a strong chance these two are at the centre of it.

In 1973, The Barbarians played the All Blacks in Cardiff. Early in the match, the Baa Baas attacked from deep, a move launched by Phil Bennett with two of the most outrageous sidesteps ever seen on a rugby field.

It was finished by his partner in crime Edwards, who latched on to the final pass of a move that set him free down the left flank to finish off the greatest try ever scored.

If you need further evidence of this pair’s brilliance, it is there in their record as a pair for Wales, and in their partnership at the fulcrum of the 1974 Lions test side that triumphed in South Africa.